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dattaway

50 karma · joined December 25, 2008

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dattaway··on A Solution to the RWP for Exam 1 – Stealing Power (2006)
I don't know the details of the case, but I suspect the farmer had a property off the grid...and bragged about how he did it. Community members often can include those from the local utility. It's likely he argued about rights and it escalated to litigation.
dattaway··on Chrome 55 uses 30% less memory than 54
Weather Underground also has a lightweight telnet service. Telnet to rainmaker.wunderground.com and enjoy the super fast ascii text interface.
dattaway··on Plans for an electric car charging point in every new home in Europe
Not ready? Most electric clothes dryers, heaters, and air conditioners already use 4500 watts each. I'm sure the grid may notice an increase, the utilities will charge for the extra consumption, and upgrade accordingly. The common 200 ampere service in homes should handle another 30 amps...
dattaway··on FCC chair: An Internet fast lane would be ‘commercially unreasonable’
That's how reading their positions becomes easy. They coin a weasel word term and dance with it. I prefer the langauge EFF is using, which appears fairly reasonable.
dattaway··on Why don't electric fish shock themselves?
I would assume the voltage drop per square inch is effectively minimal. Over the span of the body, it adds up. The catch is, the fish isn't contorting its posture to shock itself.
dattaway··on Petition to release Cameron D'Ambrosio
This is the way the law works and should not be a surprise. He has an established documented history of harming people and the court failed to see a legitimate artistic merit of his case. Fortunately, he can take these arguments to the appellate court.
dattaway··on Petition to release Cameron D'Ambrosio
His previous documented criminal history of physical violence was used as evidence.
dattaway··on Teenagers Hate Facebook, but They're Not Logging Off
I found facebook cannot beat google+ if focused on tech personalities. Facebook is great for my old world of interaction, but google+ appears to be better optimized for the scientific world. Both stimulate my mind, but I'm starting to spend more time on google+. Facebook development seems to have long been down the path to the cash cow.
dattaway··on Something is burning in the server room; how can I quickly identify what it is?
Lead based batteries often have a usable life of 3-5 years. Chances are, the others of that vintage are already dry and have already failed. Then they will rupture, often with smoke as their series connected brothers try to push electrons.
dattaway··on Why do microwaves all have different controls?
I have a difficult time believing that. As someone who made a living repairing appliances, the microwave is one of the most simple. Often you will find a complete instruction guide for the repair inside, provided by the manufacturer. Components are easily removable and replaceable.
dattaway··on Raspberry Pi vs MK802
I'm not seeing any I/O pins on the MK802, which I thought was the reason for the Raspberry Pi. Not much hardware hacking potential without these pins.
dattaway··on USSD code to factory data reset a Galaxy S3 can be trigged from a HTML page
no script required...apache has a setenvif module that can do a special action based on browser, refer, ....
dattaway··on Usenet – what have you become?
I remember that day. A quiet sunny morning in September of 1993...
dattaway··on New 100W USB 3.0 Spec Can Charge Laptops
Expect a new class of cheap USB gadgets in the future. USB powered microwave oven. There's a lot of toasty cheese melting power in 20 volts and 5 amps. There's going to be some patents filed...
dattaway··on LWN debates whether using GPL software on missiles counts as distribution
I'm sure they would be happy to quickly distribute the source code on replacement missile along with a bugfix.
dattaway··on Microsoft Bans Linux/Android Dual-Booting on Windows 8 ARM Devices
Shopping for coreboot devices is frustrating. Google returns products containing pictures of legs.
dattaway··on Why three prongs?
Voltage drop across the neutral side can and does happen. Also, loose connections often happen on the neutral side supplying the plug. This could give you the full voltage across your chassis.
dattaway··on Paradox CEO Calls DRM a 'Waste of Money'
I no longer play games, because of DRM hassles in the past.
dattaway··on Reverse Engineering a Schematic from a Circuit Board
I found most circuits are based on generic engineering designs. Note the chip numbers, get datasheets, and draw a basic block diagram. From that, draw up a mock diagram that could work, then reference the board for the details and make changes. The result is fairly accurate.
dattaway··on Computer virus hits US Predator and Reaper drone fleet
Unfortunately, most cell phones charge from a USB port.
dattaway··on Eye Contact - The Invisible Grip
Eye contact alone is golden. With no words offered from me, the car salesman negotiated the price of our new car down and double the trade in of our old car.
dattaway··on Google exposes security cameras
The default robots.txt on my Axis camera is deny. Myself and many others often change this to watch people play with the camera and catch things out of the ordinary. Mine is a 35x optical zoom, pan and tilt, have fun:

http://www.dattaway.net:8000/view/viewer_index.shtml

dattaway··on Signs that It May be Time to Consider Software as a Service (SaaS)
My last employer used SaaS. It went unreachable one weekend...
dattaway··on What You Learned About How Planes Fly Was Probably Wrong
Another perspective how wings are vacuum lifted: vacuum air flow has a low mass, but very high velocity. I work with vacuum packaging equipment and we often see a few 90 turns in the hoses hits the flow like a brick wall at each turn. The speed of the vacuum near 1 torr carries tremendous energy and is enough to rip silicone caulking from inside the joints. Air at double the atmospheric pressure won't see the high velocities to do any damage. I can imagine the high speed downward air flow giving tremendous push.
dattaway··on AT&T Is A Big, Steaming Heap Of Failure
I "cancelled" my AT&T account a few months ago. Somehow the account is still open, but accumulating monthly negative charges (credit.) No script from their customer support can resolve this issue. Technical glitches can be fascinating and this company has no shortage in my experiences with them.
dattaway··on Linux kernel advances
Configuring only the code you need can bring the actual kernel size down to very small images. Configuring a kernel for a small embedded application takes time, but its well worth it. And fast.
dattaway··on Power harvesting shock absorbers increase mpg by 10%
Only problem is hydraulics aren't very efficient and waste much heat. They claimed a recovery of 1 kilowatt, which is just over one horsepower (746 watts by definition.)

Now if that vehicle has a 200 horsepower gas engine and is boosted by a 1 horsepower, a 10% claim might be stretching it. An older generation Toyota Prius has a 10 horsepower electric motor, which can propel it over 30 mph. One horsepower might be good for about 5 mph. I suppose there might be unusual driving conditions that might realize a 10% increase in mpg, but not in our world.

dattaway··on Ask HN: Would you pay $5/yr for HN?
Small $5 paypal button. Keep things simple. I'd click.
dattaway··on How 20 mbps Internet can be slower than 8 mbps
Latency on my cablemodem has always been abou 60ms until I negotiated my monthly bill with TW/RR that I just purchased AT&T dsl. I found it fascinating after several years of 60ms ping times, my cable latency dropped to 20ms to match the dsl service. Didn't ask for that. How odd. Name lookup latency improved by many times also.

It pays to negotiate. Service just might improve.

dattaway··on Ask HN: How to you create and manage passwords?
I use passook. Its a perl command line generator for pronouncable passwords of selectable strength. Quick and dirty.
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